Fenny Compton railway station

Fenny Compton West railway station was a railway station serving Fenny Compton in the English county of Warwickshire.

Fenny Compton is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England, eight miles north of Banbury. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 808. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Fennig Cumbtūn meaning "marshy farmstead in a valley". In 1498, Sir William Cope, who served as Cofferer of the Household of Henry VII from 1494 to 1505 (in the absence at that time of a Treasurer of the Household he carried out the duties of that office as well), was granted the Lordships of Wormleighton and Fenny Compton, part of the lands of Simon de Montford who had been attainted in 1495. He later sold the lands to the Spencer family, later of Althorpe. The Parish church of St Peter and St. Clare was built in the 13th century and is a Grade II* listed building. Fenny Compton had two railway stations, Fenny Compton on the Great Western Railway route from Oxford to Birmingham Snow Hill, and Fenny Compton West on the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway route from Bicester North to Broom. The GWR station and SMJ station were built alongside each other controlled by a joint signal box. The Fenny Compton Railway Station (Great Western from Birmingham Snow Hill to London Paddington and the London, Midland & Scottish Railway branch line from Stratford-Upon-Avon to Blisworth) closed in 1964, apart from the railway line from Fenny Compton to CAD Kineton. Fenny Compton was the home of Andrew and Kathleen Booth, computer pioneers in the 1940s who built a prototype electronic computer called All-Purpose Electronic Computer (APEC). That prototype led directly to the ICT 1200 computer, the UK's first mass-produced computer. The village was struck by an F0/T1 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day. The village features in the 2024 TV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office about the British Post Office scandal as the location for the first meeting of ex sub-postmasters and mistresses in 2009.

Wormleighton is a village in Warwickshire on top of Wormleighton Hill overlooking the River Cherwell, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 183. The original village was by the banks of the Cherwell and can still be seen as a series of humps and hollows on the East bank of the Oxford Canal. The present village sits on the crest of the hill. At one end is St Peter's Church, which has a Norman tower and nave, made of local ironstone, with small added Gothic aisles. It has a graveyard around it, accessible to local sheep, and hints of a circular enclosure. A path from the church takes the visitor directly to the remains of the old 16th-century Manor house, of which the first view is a fine old chimney, then the great hall can be seen, part made of stone, part of brick. The gatehouse is Jacobean, and has a date of 1613 upon it. The manor house was slighted by the Parliamentarians as it was a Royalist stronghold. The village was abandoned after the English Civil War when the Spencer family home Wormleighton Manor was burned down in 1645. The village, however, was refounded in the 19th century, and there is a very fine Arts and Crafts group of buildings, as well as a number of thatched cottages. The first mention of a post office in the village is in September 1853, when a type of postmark known as an undated circle was issued. The post office closed in 1971. The historic family of Wormleighton is based in the North West of England. During the Second World War, Captain Ronald fought with distinction and was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1944. The Spencer family fortune derived from Sir John Spencer of Wormleighton, Warwickshire, who bought Althorp in 1508 with the huge profits from his sheep-rearing business. In 1498 an inquest jury recorded that 60 villagers had been evicted from the Wormleighton Estate "weeping, to wander in idleness ... perished of hunger". The Church has remaining box pews, a Norman font, and an interesting tomb to Robert Spencer which gives his death date in 1610 (he died in France) both in the new Gregorian calendar (used in France from 1582) and in the old Julian calendar which was still used in Britain until 1752.

Farnborough is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. It is located on the border with Oxfordshire, around 6 miles (10 km) north of Banbury. The population taken at the 2011 census was 265. The village has a church, St Botolphs, a village hall and an eating house, The Kitchen. On the southern edge of the village is Farnborough Hall, a Grade I Listed building built by the Holbech family in the early 17th century and endowed to the National Trust in the 1960s. The interior of the Hall is most famous for its collection of Roman busts and paintings by Canaletto and Giovanni Paolo Panini collected during a Grand Tour by William Holbech junior in the early 18th century. The gardens and landscape were designed by the famous designer Sanderson Miller that include two temples along the manicured walk, known as The Terrace, with an 80 feet (24 m) tall obelisk at the end.

Wormleighton Manor is a manor house in the civil parish of Wormleighton in the historic county of Warwickshire, England. It belonged to the wealthy Spencer family during the 16th and 17th century. Much of the house was burned down by Royalists during the English Civil War in 1645 and abandoned by the Spencers in favour of Althorp in Northamptonshire, which contains some materials salvaged from Wormleighton to this day. Today, all that is left of the manor, which was once four times the size of Althorp, is the Wormleighton Manor Gatehouse and Tower Cottage which is a Grade II listed building, and the northern range of the manor.

Farnborough Hall is a country house in Warwickshire, England near to the town of Banbury, (grid reference SP4349). Owned by the National Trust, but administered by the Holbech family; the house is a Grade I listed building.

St John the Baptist's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Avon Dassett, Warwickshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of The Churches Conservation Trust.

Avon Dassett is a village and civil parish in the Stratford district of Warwickshire, England, nestling among the Burton Dassett Hills about four miles east of Kineton and seven miles north of Banbury in Oxfordshire. According to the 2001 and the 2011 censuses it had a population of 210. Israel Tonge was at one stage appointed rector of Avon Dassett - although according to Tonge "illegall practices" prevented him taking up the position. Avon Carrow is located in Avon Dassett, the former residence of John Profumo, the local MP in the 1960s. He was central to the Profumo affair, a sex and spy scandal in that era.

Farnborough was a rural district in Warwickshire, England from 1894 to 1932. It was formed from that part of the Banbury rural sanitary district which was in Warwickshire (the rest, including part of the parish of Mollington historically in Warwickshire, becoming the Banbury Rural District in Oxfordshire, or the Middleton Cheney Rural District in Northamptonshire). It contained the parishes of Avon Dassett, Farnborough, Radway, Ratley and Upton, Shotteswell and Warmington. It was abolished under a County Review Order in 1932, becoming part of the Southam Rural District.

Burton Dassett is a parish and shrunken medieval village in the Stratford-upon-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The population (including the village of Knightcote) of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,322. Much of the area is now in the Burton Dassett Hills country park. It was enclosed for sheep farming by Sir Edward Belknap and John Heritage at the end of the 15th century. It was the home of Sir Thomas Temple as a child, and for several generations was regarded by the Temple family of Stowe Buckinghamshire as their ancestral home. There is a heraldic memorial to John Temple and his children in Burton Dassett church. Each of the twelve shields represents one of John Temple's children. The left half of each shield represents the husband and the right half represents the wife. The twelfth (undivided) shield represents Temple's son George who died young and therefore did not marry. Susannah Smith, the wife of agriculturalist Jethro Tull was born in the village. Previously known as Chipping Dassett due to its relatively large and successful market.

Burton Dassett Hills Country Park is a country park in southeastern Warwickshire, England. It was created as a country park in 1971 and is run by Warwickshire County Council. The area comprises a group of ironstone hills, which are named after the village of Burton Dassett which is located in the hills. The hills rise to 211 m (692 ft) above sea level and are situated half a mile east of the M40 motorway. The area was once extensively quarried for ironstone and a short industrial railway – Edge Hill Light Railway – existed for this purpose until the 1920s. Of interest at the site is a 12th-century parish church at the old village of Burton Dassett. Outside the church is a holy well which still provides water. The park is also popular with flyers of kites and radio-controlled gliders. Impressive views across the surrounding countryside can be seen from the hills; towns and other features that are viewable are described by a toposcope. On a clear day, places as far afield as Coventry (more than 20 miles away) can be seen. The park and the church were used as a location in the Tom Selleck 1990 film Three Men and a Little Lady.

Claydon is a village and former civil parish, now in Claydon with Clattercot, in the Cherwell district, in Oxfordshire, England. The village is about 6 miles (10 km) north of Banbury and about 417 feet (127 m) above sea level on a hill of Early Jurassic Middle Lias clay.The village is the northernmost settlement in Oxfordshire and as such is also the northernmost settlement in the entire South East England region. The parish is bounded by Warwickshire to the west and Northamptonshire to the east. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 306.